John Linton As I have previously written, almost from the day I started writing this blog, we have been looking for a 'magic box' that combines standard ADSL router/modem/wifi functions with a sim slot and one or two ATAs. In the three plus years we have been looking for such a box we have found almost what we want on a few occasions but never exactly what we want - and certainly never at the price we wanted. Over the last six months we have got much closer to the exact specifications but have never got close to our required buy price. New information received this week seems to indicate that such a box may now becoming available but the price is still an issue.
We have begun our planned activities to sell business services to small businesses and will polish those plans as we progress. Our basis for offering these services to the theoretical 1,000,000 'SME' operations around Australia would be significantly enhanced if we had the 'magic box' today but as we don't we have to proceed without it. We are basing the 'SME' service on a residential grade ADSL2 service with wireless broadband back up plus VoIP calling and the related savings with PSTN back up. We will also be offering 1 - 5 hours of, highly qualified, technical support per month to assist these small businesses set up and maintain their Email, Web Site and other back end services as well as providing technical support for issues relating to the SME's wifi set ups for additional computers and trouble shooting any other 'computer' problems they encounter.
From what we have learned from the 5,000 or so SMEs we already provide services to their main decision making criterion is 100% availability of the internet service which can only be possible by having two, running on different infrastructures, services. The easiest, and by far the lowest cost, method of providing 100% availability is a wireless broadband back up service at a low monthly cost with a pay per use basis of charging. With a 'magic box' this can be provided via auto fail over but even without a magic box it can be implemented within a few seconds. So every SME really needs to consider how best to implement a back up internet service and the answer is, except where wireless cannot be obtained, a wireless service. Luckily Exetel has spent three years putting low cost but highly reliable wireless services in place.
A major saving for any small business is to use VoIP (with PSTN as a back up) and VoIP services are now much easier to install and use than they have been at any time in the past. Again, a 'magic box with ATA capability would be the ideal solution with the customer just plugging in their current hand set and the 'box' selecting VoIP as the preferred service but defaulting to PSTN if the internet connection is not available. All inbound calls would be via PSTN and no number change would be required - an essential for an SME. Retaining the PSTN line would be essential for an SME both for back up and continuity of number.
The provision of sending/receiving faxes and sending receiving SMS to/from the customer's desk top or lap top computers would be a minor plus - but nevertheless a nice facility to have especially allowing incoming faxes to be sent to different individual's own computers by giving each employee a different 'fax number'. Similarly including fully supported web site and email hosting would be a bonus for many SMEs and would save quite considerably on 'consulting charges' when changes need to be made or something 'goes wrong'.
My view is that the icing on the cake and the major difference between what Exetel provides and what every other company provides, subject to seeing what actually happens, is that Exetel's SME service includes a number of one on one support hours each month to deal with any problems that arise with any of the services and their operability within the SME's organisation. The thought of Telstra or Optus even considering offering such support is beyond comprehension. But, and this is the key issue, SME's actually need such support far more often than they need line fault fixing or similar carrier responsibility issues. It will be an interesting 'sell' but if we can get it right it will be, and remain until the end of time, a unique 'must have'. Which as any sales person knows is the key to 100% sales success.
So...if only we could deliver a 'magic box' today everything would be in place.
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PS: Your tax dollars at work - My goodness those 'NBN2' people are great commercial negotiators!
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/city-beat/nbn-co-moves-closer-to-wireless-with-austar-deal/story-fn4xq4cj-1226007445056